Quality of life in patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome in a third-level institution

Abstract

Introduction: From the discipline of nursing, this article analyzes the association between healthrelated quality of life (HRQOL) and emotional state, focusing on the case of patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). Health is a constitutive factor of quality of life (QOL), from which it could be assessed as good or bad. Therefore, diseases are not only limited to physical involvement, but also to psychological, social and familiar, on which it has an even higher incidence if the etiology is uncommon. By knowing the experience that GBS patients have of these aspects, it is possible to determine which are the altered functional patterns according to the Marjory Gordon model. Objective: To evaluate the QOL in patients with GBS in a third-level institution.

Material and Methods: A quantitative analytical methodology was used with an observational, prospective and longitudinal design. Longitudinal studies of HRQOL in patients with GBS are still scarce. Therefore, HRQOL was studied in patients with GBS in a third-level institution, specifically on day 28 and the third month from the onset of the disease, considering the neurological disorder progression phase and the recovery phase. After review and acceptance of the research committee and the research ethics committee protocol, the investigation was carried out for eleven months, from September 2021 to July 2022. Thirty adult patients participated through a convenience nonprobability sampling, fulfilling the inclusion criteria and prior informed consent. HRQOL was studied by means of the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire, brief version (WHOQOL-BREF), translated into Spanish, designed and validated by the WHO. The normality distribution of the data was determined with the Shapiro Wilk test. In order to carry out statistical analysis, descriptions of median, dispersion statistics, and chi-square test were made with the SPSS statics V.25 program.

Results: Regarding QOL measurements, the perception of patients at day 28 was “regular”, with a medium of 60.13 and a standard deviation of 7.26. In the third month there was not meaningful improvement, since their perception was “normal”, showing a medium of 76.66 and a deviation of 11.21.

Conclusions: During the eleven-month follow up of GBS patients, a gradual recovery in QOL was observed. The objectives set were achieved. Our study confirms that GBS does intervene in the QOL of patients.